I’m a Celeb Lady C on turning I’d love to get a man with a fit body
SHE’S the controversial I’m A Celebrity camp mate who won legions of fans with her sharp one-liners.
But despite the sometimes cutting remarks, colourful aristocrat Lady Colin Campbell has a far softer side – and she wants to share it with a companion.
As she invited us into her 1 4- bedroom castle home to celebrate her landmark 70th birthday yesterday, she said: “I’m a kind person. I just want a nice guy who loves me and who I love.
“He doesn’t have to be rich,” she added, holding her Cavalier King Charles, Mickie. “But he has to have a nice
body and be kind.” And, with a twinkle in her eye, she joked: “I am turning 50, remember.”
Lady Colin has had a roller coaster life. As she blew out her birthday cake in her 14-bedroom Sussex residence, she told for the very first time how she once lived in fear of a stalker.
She recalled: “He knew me although I didn’t know him.
“He was in love with me. It lasted a few years. He would ring the house all the time but then I moved so it stopped.”
An author of books on the royals, she told the Sunday People she was also caught up in the anthrax scare of 2001 when an envelope of white powder was delivered to her door.
Substitute
There was even a kidnap attempt involving one of her adopted toddler sons Dima, now 27.
“He was playing in the park and a man tried to take him away but my dog attacked.”
With her blonde hair looking immaculate, she said with understatement: “My life has not followed a normal trajectory.”
Her wealthy parents Michael and Gloria Ziadie were members of a prominent family in Jamaica.
They could not accept her as a girl and made her have male hormone jabs during a hellish three-week hospital stay.
She was raised a boy for much of her youth.
Her father even suggested suicide to avoid family shame. “I forgave him before he died,” she said, “although my mother was a real piece of work.
“She was a traitor. But having a difficult younger life is good as it sets you up to be appreciative.”
In 1974 she married Lord Colin Campbell, younger brother of the 12th Duke of Argyll, five days after they met.
They split 14 months later. She’s now gained more popularity on the E4 series Celebs Go Dating. But she still hasn’t found that special someone.
She confided: “I love people differently now. When I was young there was the biological imperative – hormones.
“As you get older it ceases to be so hormonal. I needed to be in love in my 20s and 30s.
“In my 40s I left my longstanding boyfriend, went to Paris and met the most divinely attractive human being.
“Stunningly handsome and hysterically funny, he was also a duke. But I wanted motherhood and I turned him down.”
Lady Colin added: “I would tell my younger self, ‘Don’t worry. Your day will come and even if you don’t get what you want the substitute might be better than the real thing.’”